Spain feasted on its debut in the European Under-21. He sat at the table in front of a Romania without an appetite, scared to see himself against a superior team on paper that, in addition, handled it at will throughout the game. She played with a complex, as if only half of the field existed, and La Rojita did not even need to give an excellent version to end with a win (0-3) in the first game of a talismanic tournament that also opens the doors to the Games Olympics in Paris next summer.

Spain knew that the host was going to crouch trying not to get too hurt from an unequal duel. The game asked to be kneaded, with Antonio Blanco and Álex Baena looking for Rodri and Sergio Gómez on the banks while Sancet tried to find the crack through which to sneak into the area and be the tip of the Romanian defense's opener. It took 20 minutes to achieve it, as many as understanding that they would have to do it all because the rival had no ambition. If he passed from the center of the field, he limited himself to finishing plays with sterile shots from far away without faith.

Detected that Romania did not dare to cross the core, Spain sought how to harass. First he tried it with distant shots that crashed into a fronton, like Álex Baena's right cross, but the one who released the chain was Rodri to accelerate Spain. He had to deal with Borza, a debutant 17-year-old winger who he embittered by chasing his shadow. It gave him the seconds he needed to think and create the problem for him.

First he tried with a left-footed shot that was looking for the squad and then slipped in as a classic winger to the baseline to give a pass to Abel Ruiz who, point blank, pushed next to the right post. The Valencian did not understand how he was denied that goal on the edge of halftime.

The change of Santi Denia

Spain did not go to the dressing room with an advantage, but Santi Denia had already seen the hole through which he would get it. With one change, the party bowed. He brought on Víctor Gómez to double Rodri and make the right wing more offensive. The two did not take long to put together the play of the first Spanish goal in the championship. The bético man saw the career of the Braga winger and gave him the ball on the run so that, with a precise pass from behind, Álex Baena appeared to beat Popa.

The Romanians let them appear in the area with spaces and they paid for it. The punishment didn't take long to get fat again when Miranda scored the second goal after a partnership between Rodri, Abel Ruiz and Sergio Gómez in the heart of the area.

The Romanian coach Emil Sandoi shook his bench to try to anesthetize a game in which they were falling apart, but the total collapse was only prevented by Spain itself. Santi Denia looked for more damaging resources than the many available to him, with the talent of Veiga, the mischief of Riquelme and the arrivals of Aimar Oroz. Popa saved another great occasion from Abel Ruiz one-on-one and two from Osasuna's midfielder, one of them on the same goal line.

The score favored La Rojita but, to make up for everything that failed in 89 minutes, Sergio Gómez closed the win on the last play with a direct free kick that deflected the wall. Spain thus surpassed the score achieved by Ukraine against Croatia (2-0) and climbs to the leadership of group B.

Last Thursday, during the fifth stage of the Tour of Switzerland, Gino Mäder and Magnus Sheffield launched themselves down the winding descent of the Albula Pass with their eyes fixed on the finish line, located less than 10 kilometers away. The road, wide and in good condition, allowed Juan Ayuso to show off, who was flying ahead in pursuit of victory. However, in a section of linked curves, Mäder and Sheffield lost control of the bike and plunged down a ravine.. Sheffield was able to save his life, but the Swiss, treated urgently after rushing into a stream, would die the next morning in hospital. The tragedy of Mäder, fourth fatality since 2011 after an accident in the middle of the race, has fueled a controversy as old as cycling itself. Can this sport coexist so naturally with death?

“It won't be easy, but cycling will continue. It will always remain a dangerous sport, although we will soon find a way to improve and reduce the risks. Among all we have to make it safer, ”ditch Adam Hansen, president of the World Association of Corridors (CPA), the majority union in the peloton. These are the most distressing hours for the Australian since he took office last March, replacing Gianni Bugno. However, despite his busy schedule, Hansen attends EL MUNDO with the intention of delving into the analysis. When the journalist raises the possibility of radical changes, such as the elimination of downhills, the union leader is blunt: “Downhills are part of this sport. That's clear. We have to keep them, but with extreme safety: improving road safety education for cyclists or finding a way to slow them down”, adds Hansen.

According to Strava data from Sheffield, at the time of his terrifying fall he was rolling, along with Mäder, at 97 km/h. Nothing strange for two courageous cyclists aged 21 and 26 in the Swiss Alps, where speed records are broken every season. In line with what was exhibited by Tom Pidcock during his descent from the Galibier in the last Tour, when in a four-kilometre section he led the peloton by 35 seconds. One of the feats, so much to the taste of fans, that captures the recent Netflix series about the Grande Boucle.

A worrisome increase

“It is a misunderstood heroism. Cyclists are not gladiators, nor robots, nor should they risk their lives for our enjoyment”, says Thijs Zonneveld, with authority to approach the matter from a double perspective.. Because Zonneveld, a prestigious journalist for the Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, also competes in the Continental Tour, the third division of the UCI. Totally reluctant to assume fatality as something inherent and inevitable, Zonneveld does not hesitate to underline the “immense risks” assumed by cycling.. Nor when pointing out, in conversation with this newspaper, a point of no return after Mäder's death: “We can no longer continue like this.”

According to the specialized website Procyclingstats, over the last two years, injuries to cyclists who are victims of accidents have experienced a worrying increase. If in 2014, when the count began, 118 cases were registered, in 2022 they rose to 247. And this year, with four months of competition still to go, there are 188. The majority continue to be clavicle fractures, although concussions appear in fourth place.

These figures have been one of the focuses of attention of the last meetings of the CPA with the International Cycling Union (UCI), the organizers and the teams. «They tell us that there is less and less respect and this is perhaps because there are more cyclists who take greater risks. They are getting younger and less experienced, they have much faster wheels and frames than before.. So each accident is at a much higher speed,” reveals Hansen.. In his opinion, the key to success lies in “everyone rowing in the same direction”. However, not even the professionals seem to trust excessively in the decisions of those at the top.. Neither in those of the UCI, nor in those of his own union.

Van Emden's proposals

In August 2020, just two weeks after the horrifying accident that left Fabio Jakobsen in a coma, Jos van Emden was one of the first to speak out.. So, the veteran Jumbo time trialist proposed 10 concrete measures to increase safety standards. Among them, the rigorous inspections of the route, the publication of the road book several weeks in advance, a penalty system of red and yellow cards for offenders, the regularization of motorcycle overtaking, or a series of airbags on both sides of the finish lines.

These initiatives are now joined by Zonneveld, who has compiled a very extensive list among cycling families, as full of good intentions as it is in need of consensus. «Not to mention curves in the last 500 meters; prohibition of arrivals downhill; more signaling -and better located- in the black spots; protections with meshes in the dangerous descents; Mandatory clothing made of Kevlar or other protective fabric; mini airbags in the helmet or clothing; mobile street furniture provided by cities; clearer rules in the peloton about what is allowed and what is not; stricter measures against those who endanger their colleagues; a more regulated system of punishment for repeat offenders; radio communication only with the judges and not with the team cars; a safety car that neutralizes the route in the event of a massive fall; record of the time in the flat stages at five or 10 km from the finish line; a small fee from attendees to install more guardrails…»

The great objective is to put an end to the list of deceased. Without addressing the cases in races of a lesser nature, it is enough to recall Wouter Weylandt -in the descent of the Passo del Bocco (Giro 2011)-, Antoine Demoitié -hit by a motorcycle (Ghent-Wevelgem 2016) and Bjorg Lambrecht -after hitting his head with the asphalt (Tour of Poland 2019). Last fall, Van Emden warned that he would not return to the Tour of Croatia, lamenting the lack of safety of its urban circuits, which included passages through tram lines, narrow alleys and dangerous street furniture.. Hours before the fatal outcome of Mäder was known, the world champion Remco Evenepoel expressed his hope that his case would help “the organizers to reflect” and “we think about the risks we assume going down a port.”

Lotto runners, after Lambrecht's death in Poland. EFE

However, no actor can boast as much power as the UCI itself, the body that last September almost deprived Annemiek van Vleuten of her rainbow jersey in Wollongong because the height of her socks exceeded the established maximum.. Some time ago, around 2018, the institution chaired by David Lappartient already reduced the squad from 198 to 176 units in the grand tours, under the hypothesis of a proportionality between the risk and the number of people involved.. From then until today, it hardly introduced more news than those approved in February 2021 by its Management Committee and the Professional Cycling Council (PCC).. Those “ambitious changes” pointed rather to the cyclists themselves, forced to part with their bottles in specific areas, located every 30 or 40 km, and penalized in case of adopting dangerous postures on the bike during descents.

Regarding the care of the finish areas, the new guidelines were limited to the placement of barriers, avoiding any space between them. And the obvious dangers of urban furniture were resolved with concepts as vaporous as “modernization”, “improvement” or “harmonization”. Of course, to tackle any task, the UCI created a new position: Richard Chassot, organizer of the Tour de Romandie, would be its first Security Manager.

We are a little fed up with so many bills.

Julián Eraso, director of Itzulia

More than three years after that appointment, Zonneveld confirmed last week the imminent creation of SafeR, a new independent body that will oversee safety on the WorldTour.. After pressure from Jumbo, INEOS and Quick Step, the UCI had accelerated its implementation, which will even advance the Tour de France. Julián Eraso attended one of the videoconferences to specify each detail. I don't know if it will be more effective. What I do know is that they have created a company that we will all pay for. And the organizers are already a bit fed up with so many invoices, ”says the director of the Tour of the Basque Country.

“A joint effort”

Six months before its last edition, held in April, Itzulia had to video record every meter of its six stages for the relevant review by the UCI, which works in collaboration with the University of Ghent.. “We notice few advances. If I'm honest, the only one capable of adjusting every detail is the Tour”, admits Eraso. The mandatory three-day courses organized by the UCI at its headquarters in Aigle do not escape their skepticism either.. “They forced us to appoint a security officer and pay for their stay there.. Finally, it came down to telling him what he already knew.. My conclusion is clear: there is no magic solution, but when someone kills each other, they all riot.

In the coming weeks, the UCI will publish its new safety guidelines and protocols. A text, logically, prepared before Mäder's death and in collaboration with the CPA. “These are internal issues that have been worked on confidentially,” slips José Luis de Santos, president of ACP, the Spanish union present in the process.

«Together we must make an effort. There is a firm commitment to implement solutions that give the best response to the new ways of running and the new urban environments”, completes the former national coach. Between guardrails, trees, signs, bollards and speed bumps, De Santos offers a ray of hope in his final statement: “Full safety in a sport like this is very difficult, but we are on the right track.”

Ilkay Gündogan has already made a decision: he will play for Barça starting next season. The Manchester City midfielder, finally, has chosen not to continue in the Premier League, despite the fact that Pep Guardiola gave the necessary instructions to try to ensure his continuity, and he will join the Barça club as soon as his commitment to the citizen club ends , next June 30. Thus, this footballer, the great priority of Xavi Hernández to reinforce the Barcelona core, will land in the Barcelona entity with the letter of freedom under his arm and will sign a commitment for two seasons, with the option to extend it for one more season. The agreement, right now, is only pending the official announcement by the group chaired by Joan Laporta.

The signing of Gundogan has precipitated this same Wednesday. The Barça football director, Mateu Alemany, has traveled to Munich to close the last fringes of an operation in which the Barça entity had been working for a long time. The German, a player who has been key in City's schemes, who has won his first hat-trick this season under Guardiola, was Xavi's preferred option to give the Barça midfield an extra quality.

Above all, seeing how in this 2022-23 season the creative capacity of the team dropped a lot when Pedri was forced to be away from the pitch. The midfielder, as happened with Robert Lewandowski last summer, has been seduced by the details of the Barcelona project and has ended up opting to try himself out in the Spanish League instead of continuing with a Manchester City team he joined in 2017 and where many consider him little less than a legend.

Make the registration effective

Gündogan's great concern is that Barça can make his registration effective. Something that, despite the fact that the economic situation of the entity continues to be delicate, has practically already been guaranteed. In their memory, surely, are the situations lived out last summer by Lewandowski, Christensen, Kessié, Raphinha, Marcos Alonso or Jules Koundé. The latter, in fact, was practically the last one that could be successfully registered in the competition, with the League already started and with the endorsement presented by the president himself, Laporta, and the entity's treasurer, Joan Olivé.

Regarding his record, the German midfielder will receive around 10 million euros per season. The same amount that, in fact, the Polish forward has received in his first year, although in the case of the former Bayern striker this is variable and will increase three million more per year until his third season to drop again to 13 million. the second in case of staying a fourth.

The Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona must decide whether to admit a complaint filed by an individual in which he claims that the current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, as well as the ex-president Joan Gaspart be accused of a continued crime of unfair administration in the 'Negreira case'. However, the Prosecutor's Office opposed this lawsuit, considering that the participation of the two Barça leaders, the one prior to 2010 in the first presidency of Laporta, would be prescribed.

The complaint filed by Miguel AP. points out that there was a “concert” for the purchase of referees among all the Barça boards of directors since 2001, in the Gaspart era, although the prosecutor maintains that at the moment there is no evidence that demonstrates a “succession in the alleged illegal actions”. “Nor can it be understood that the members of the successive boards of directors can form a kind of consortium that assumes the criminal responsibility of the previous and the following ones,” says the Prosecutor's Office.

In addition, the prosecutor recalls that between 2003 and 2010 there were no crimes of sports corruption or unfair administration, which are those that the court investigates. That is why he believes that the accusation for these specific crimes against Laporta and Gaspart are prescribed and asks that the complaint filed by the individual be rejected. The court already opened the door a few weeks ago to an investigation for money laundering of some of those involved in the 'Negreira case'.

In his brief presented to the court, to which this medium had access, the prosecutor recalls that “each board of directors adopted its own decisions, without the respective presidencies having the opportunity or occasion to participate in those taken by the previous or subsequent boards; each board directive could 'dominate' their own actions and only each of them, individually, could have been able to avoid the consequences, harmful or not, that their actions could unleash”.

The court is investigating the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, and the former presidents of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as other Barça managers for unfair administration and corruption in the sports field, having paid 7.2 million of euros to Negreira and his son, also accused, to presumably receive arbitration aid.

The Court of Instruction number 1 of Barcelona must decide whether to admit a complaint filed by an individual in which he claims that the current president of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, as well as the ex-president Joan Gaspart be accused of a continued crime of unfair administration in the 'Negreira case'. However, the Prosecutor's Office opposed this lawsuit, considering that the participation of the two Barça leaders, the one prior to 2010 in the first presidency of Laporta, would be prescribed.

The complaint filed by Miguel AP. points out that there was a “concert” for the purchase of referees among all the Barça boards of directors since 2001, in the Gaspart era, although the prosecutor maintains that at the moment there is no evidence that demonstrates a “succession in the alleged illegal actions”. “Nor can it be understood that the members of the successive boards of directors can form a kind of consortium that assumes the criminal responsibility of the previous and the following ones,” says the Prosecutor's Office.

In addition, the prosecutor recalls that between 2003 and 2010 there were no crimes of sports corruption or unfair administration, which are those that the court investigates. For this reason, he believes that the accusation for these specific crimes against Laporta and Gaspart is time-barred and requests that the complaint filed by the individual be rejected.. The court already opened the door a few weeks ago to an investigation for money laundering of some of those involved in the 'Negreira case'.

In his brief presented to the court, to which this medium had access, the prosecutor recalls that “each board of directors adopted its own decisions, without the respective presidencies having the opportunity or occasion to participate in those taken by the previous or subsequent boards; each board directive could 'dominate' their own actions and only each of them, individually, could have been able to avoid the consequences, harmful or not, that their actions could unleash”.

The court is investigating the former vice-president of the Technical Committee of Referees, José María Enríquez Negreira, and the former presidents of FC Barcelona Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as other Barça managers for unfair administration and corruption in the sports field, having paid 7.2 million of euros to Negreira and his son, also accused, to presumably receive arbitration aid.